Charlie Jackson’s footwork was the thing that impressed Manchester United soccer scouts.

Of course, his ball control had likely improved with his legs freshly freed from the diapers.

Jackson was spotted by the powerhouse British side at age three, toying with his opponents in a community “Footytotz” program. But the club held off for two years before asking him to join their development squad when he was 5 years old.

There, the tousle-headed tot, already touted as a potential superstar, will play with kids at least a year older than him.

But Jackson, who’s a fan of arch-rival Manchester City, had mixed feelings about the situation.

“He was mortified that he was having to train with United,” his father Andy told the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

“But he seems to be getting over that a bit now.”

Jackon’s training with Manchester United’s junior squad hits even closer to the cradle than an arrangement made last summer by Real Madrid. In August, the Spanish club inked 7-year-old Argentinian Leonel Angel Coira — who goes by the mono-moniker Leo — to their famed youth academy.

Big-time European clubs have long recruited young players.

FC Barcelona’s youth academy “La Masia,” for example, has dozens of youngsters living and playing together from the age of 11.

The team’s superstar,Lionel Messi, was signed by the club at 13.

Coaching and caring for kids at 10 or 11 represents a relatively low-cost gamble, with teams hoping to sell their contracts for big money when the players reach 18, 19 or 20.

But the two recent kiddy training-squad arrangements may reflect the sport’s cut-throat competition, pushing clubs to lock up talent at increasingly younger ages.

Even the Toronto FC will be scrutinizing kids’s skills before they reach the decade mark.

The club’s new Downsview Park training facility, which opens next year, will welcome kids nine and under by the year 2014, says TFC spokesperson Mike Masaro.

Already running under-19 and under-17 training squads, the team will welcome kids under 15 in 2012 and younger than 13 the next year.

“By 2014, we want to have an under-11 and then under-9 team,” Masaro says.

Masaro says FC coaches are convinced talent can be spotted and nurtured in kids who have not even hit their teens.

“Absolutely . . . a lot of these programs around Ontario have rep teams at different age groups and they’re getting younger and younger,” he says.

“So the talent is definitely there and when they have the ability to come into a facility and train with professionally-trained coaches, of course the sky is the limit for the youngsters.”

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